How to Antique Paper
By DIY Maven
I saw Martha "antique" paper a few years ago, and although I don’t remember her technique, I do remember that it was complicated. I played around with the general idea, though, and came up with an easy way to get the same aged look.
What You Need
A piece of paper you want to age. (I used regular 24lb laser paper. Of course, print your poem, passage of writing, and etc. to the page before you attempt to antique it.)
1/4 cup of hot, black coffee. (Although I’ve only used coffee, I’m sure tea would work.)
A teaspoon or so of instant coffee. (I haven’t used fresh ground coffee or tea leaves, but they might work too.)
A baking sheet larger than the piece of paper you want to antique.
Sponge brush, or soft bristle brush.
Paper towels.
An oven.
What You Do
Pre-heat oven to lowest setting. For me it was 200 degrees.
Crumple up your piece of paper into a ball, then smooth it out and place in your baking sheet.
Pour hot coffee over your paper. Spread coffee over/around your paper with a sponge brush. (I puddled a little too much in the lower left corner in the picture below.)
Sprinkle instant coffee over your paper.
Let stand for a few minutes, letting the coffee crystals "blossom."
Using a couple of paper towels, dab the coffee up so none is pooled on the baking sheet or paper.
Slide sheet into oven. Keep a watch on your project just in case of flame ups.
"Bake" sheet for about five minutes or until paper is dry. You can tell it’s drying when the edges of the paper start to curl up.
What To Do With It
Frame your antiqued poem or passage for a great-looking piece of cheap art; or use it to make your sweetie a heart-felt Valentine. Antiqued paper also looks great as a backdrop for photographs, serving as recessed matting. (I’d only use copies of treasured photos for archival reasons, however.)
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ronmaggi
I never thought of sprinkling instant coffee! What a great idea!
Rick
thanks man i need to write a book about romeo and juliet and this will make it lokk sweet as hell thanks a lot man.
kestrel
We do this for our kids every now and then but with tea instead of coffee. We take the paper, draw a pirate map on it, crinkle it up, rip a few corners and then antique it. Voilà...authentic pirate treasure map for the kids to take on an advernture. Sometimes we then laminate it so it lasts longer and holds up to rolling it up and unrolling it 20 times a minute.
CellyOneill
Cool tutorial ! Great idea !
bruno
ModHomeEcTeacher
Maven,
I think it's a great idea. I'm trying really hard to make things concise and complete as well as snappy and clever. Maybe I'm shooting for too much. I've been searching for something that gives some technical writing direction on a how-to, but I haven't found anything. If someone was right next to me in my studio, I could teach them and show them at the same time. I love the idea!!!
DIY Maven
MHET, that's not a bad idea! I've never thought about writing such a thing. I'll run it by Bruno and see what he says. Maybe it could even be a feature article??
ModHomeEcTeacher
DIY-
How about doing a post on writing a really good How-To and posting it. I am trying to improve my tutorial skills. Hellllppppppp!!!!!
Debra
megrockstar
I remember I did this in third grade on a project. I used tea and i soaked it. It came out good too but not as good as you did here(with the coffee).
I also took a match and burned a few areas and immediately blew them out and let the paper get 'singed' a little more and a tiny bit more of a used look.
Great idea here with a poem.
thanks!
DIY Maven
b_o_cs
great work! but the shett is a bit wavy... how may it 'ironing'???
elizabethperry
lizandbogart
Keter
Kewl! I remember doing this as a kid, but with lemon juice, salt, and (I think) cream of tartar (NOT baking soda/powder for sure!). Sprinkle the powder on the paper, then spritz with the lemon juice from a spray bottle or spatter with a toothbrush. Bake in a low oven until dry. The spots where the lemon juice stuck more would darken, yielding a parchment look. It was a variation on the idea of using lemon juice as invisible ink that gets revealed when warmed over a candle flame.
Your method is just as good and no doubt will be a lot less smelly. ;o)
Thing to remember with paper treated with acid (coffee and tea are acidic, too) is that the acid will continue to eat away at the paper and anything else the paper comes into contact with, so it shouldn't be used in scrap books, or enclosed with any item of value (stray humidity can pick up the acid and affect items not in direct contact) so ixnay on sealed cases/shadowboxes, too.
No first-hand experience on this, but theoretically you should be able to neutralize the acid by soaking the finished paper in baking soda solution. Try an experiment with this before doing it to a nice project, though, to see if there are any unexpected effects (bleaching, loss of fiber strength, etc.).
bruno
DIY Maven
dentedvw
Neat idea!
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